Known for her work in trajectory and flight analysis for NASA, Katherine Johnson’s story was made mainstream in the movie Hidden Figures. Johnson made immense strides for not only space travel, but additionally racial integration as an African-American woman in the 50s.

Born Aug. 26, 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, WV, Johnson died on Feb. 24, 2020 in Newport News, VA from natural causes in her retirement home at the age of 101. 

A member of NACA (now NASA)’s Space Task Group, Johnson was tasked with trajectory analysis for Mission Freedom 7 in 1961; the U.S.’s first manned spaceflight. Shortly after, Johnson and fellow engineer Ted Skopinski co-wrote, “Determination of Azimuth Angle at Burnout for Placing a Satellite Over a Selected Earth Position”, which detailed the equations in which the landing position of an orbital spacecraft is specified.

Chosen as one of three black women to integrate West Virginia’s graduate schools, Johnson was a gifted child early in life, attending the local high school for classes at just 13 years old. She graduated from West Virginia State with a Ph.D. in mathematics with the highest honors; the third African-American to do so.

Johnson was married to and raised her three daughters with James Goble from 1939 to 1956, until he passed away from cancer. In 1959, she remarried Jim Johnson and remained married until his death in 2019.

In 2015, Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from former President Barack Obama for her work in space and flight, and NASA recognized her “historical role as one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist.” 

Multiple facilities at NASA have also been established in Johnson’s name, and in 2016 during the dedication of the “Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility”, she was also awarded NASA’s coveted Silver Snoopy award for her “outstanding contributions to flight safety and mission success.”

Johnson is survived by two of her daughters Katherine and Joylette Goble, her six grandchildren, and her 11 great-grandchildren.

Johnson’s memorial service was held on Mar. 7, at Hampton University Convocation Center in Hampton, VA.

The 2020 Iowa Caucuses was held on Feb. 3 and for the first time ever, a mobile app was used for the voting process. Privately run by political parties themselves rather than state/local governments, the caucuses are most often associated with the decision of a presidential nominee.

While intentions were good, the app created several major issues, leading to a conversation on the way caucuses should be run — or if they should exist in the first place.

The app was created by a company called Shadow Inc. The young startup had a history in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, as well as developing several apps for current Democratic Presidential candidates. 

The app boasted that it would give precinct leaders the ability to report results, as well as keep poll data updated for voters. On the day of the caucuses, only certain districts’ apps were functioning, and many encountered multiple issues.

Many voters had waited until the day of the caucus to download the app, leading to error messages and problems with instructions. Most were unaware that they should bring their phones in the first place.

These issues led to a larger discussion of what the caucuses offer us as a nation, and if they should exist in the first place.

As Chabot College political science professor Jamilya Ukudeeva explains, caucuses are a very divisive concept for Americans. “On one side, we have people who love caucuses because of how engaging they are and how involved people get.”

While they can be perceived as a democratic necessity, they can also be extremely complex and time-consuming. “There has been a movement for many years in the Democratic National Committee (DNC)” says Professor Ukudeeva. “They’ve been trying to push states to give up caucuses and move to the primary elections, the way we do in California.” 

The DNC will be using Iowa as another argument for the elimination. Now, there’s talk of eliminating the caucuses altogether. 

Professor Ukudeeva also touched on the ramifications of Iowa, stating that the main election has to be “transparent” and “reliable” — two words that don’t describe the recent caucus. 

“We already have a problem with nonparticipation and low voter turnout. When voters see mishandling at this level, the trust goes lower and people are even less likely to vote.” Damage is done to the entire electoral system, not just the caucus.

The possibility of hacking and tampering in our elections, another issue arises in the use of digital mediums in politics. When asked about the plausibility of foreign interference, Professor Ukudeeva admitted that “Russia’s interference is very likely, and that’s actually my number one fear. You can call me paranoid, but I’m watching out for that.” 

Furthermore, with the recent situation and death of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, another threat is just as possible.

It’s clear that change has already occurred; with digital election processes and Americans’ reliance on the internet, our democracy is changing. The Iowa caucus showed us that progress is possible — but returning to older methods may not be such a bad choice for the nation.

Chabot College and Las Positas College have moved their classes online. Chabot’s campus will be closed during spring break March 23-27, online classes will resume March 30. 

On March 20, Interim Chancellor Ronald P. Gerhard of the schools had sent an email to the Chabot-Las Positas students regarding online classes. 

He stated in his email that, “your student education is important to us. We want you to continue your classes and achieve your educational goals.” The current plan is to continue all courses online for the rest of the semester. 

Dr. Susan Sperling, President of Chabot stated that lab classes and career technical classes are, “moving wherever possible to distance and remote forms of education our most important job is to support the continuity of your learning, your education.” This was presented in a video sent out by the school and on Chabot’s website. 

Gerhard brought up the importance for students to communicate with their instructors or counselors if feeling overwhelmed or stressed with these new circumstances. Services for students such as the Admissions & Records, Financial Aid, and Counseling are still available through email. Email addresses can be located on the schools’ websites under the faculty directory.

“Campuses are physically closed Spring Break and until further notice,” Gerhard stated leaving the possibility of the campus remaining closed past expected up for question. 

This news is concerning for Lucia Belloso, a music major at Chabot College. 

Belloso expressed she’d feel frustrated if the school remained closed for the rest of the semester, she feels material has been pushed back. “I would have probably preferred if the school was closed for about a month and then extend whatever was missed into the summer.”

Belloso stated that she’s been much more comfortable having classes from home and that it takes away some of the stress that comes with having to get ready and drive to the campus. 

“It feels like a group effort,” stated Belloso referring to the fact that both students and teachers are working together to take the next steps necessary for their online classes. “It doesn’t feel too overwhelming. We go step by step.” 

The biggest cons for Belloso is the face-to-face interactions with other students and instructors. She mentions that her math class would work together in groups and that it was easier getting things done when they were all in the same room than online. 

The biggest shift was how Belloso’s music class has shifted, “ we now have to send recordings of ourselves playing instruments instead of rehearsing as a group.” She hopes it won’t be too overwhelming for the instructors to have to listen to everyone individually. 

Emails continue to be sent out as new details are being settled for the school. Like Gerhard, Dr. Sperling also encouraged her video for students to communicate with faculty for any questions or concerns. 

Admission & Records Office:

email: [email protected] 

For transcript information:

email: [email protected]

Financial Aid Office:

email: [email protected]

Counseling Office:

email: [email protected]

The Invisible Man is a rated-R Scooby-Doo episode with poor CGI.

This was an entertaining movie if you don’t think about it too much. The closest thing I can compare it to is Scooby-Doo with its use of plot twists and shock factor.

The Invisible Man starts off at an awkward spot where the main character Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) is running away from her boyfriend? Husband? Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). Cecilia is shown sneaking around the house and messing with Adrian’s drink while he is asleep then she runs off into the woods to get picked up by her sister Emily.

Adrian is immediately said to be this super smart guy who started up his own tech company and apparently makes enough money to have anything and anyone he wants. It is also quickly established that he was super manipulative and abusive toward Cecilia to the point where she ran away.

Two weeks after she runs away it is reported that Adrian committed suicide and has left a lot of money for Cecilia. Cecilia was terrified of this guy to the point where she refuses to step outside and goes to stay with her sister’s friend? Boyfriend? I guess their relationship wasn’t relevant enough to tell the audience.

Now there was no real establishment of Adrian’s genius, just mentions of how he is a prominent figure in the tech world. It is just meant to be assumed by the massive seaside home with the super high tech lab underground, and a shot of a wall filled with certificates and degrees.

Throughout the film, Adrian is running about in his invisible suit ruining Cecilia’s life and haunting her at the same time. 

The biggest issue with this movie is the inconsistency throughout the film. One of the things used as evidence against Cecilia was security footage of her running away from seemingly nothing. 

Later on, when Cecilia is blamed for killing her sister in the middle of a high-end restaurant the idea of checking security tapes is never even mentioned because if they did they would see the floating knife. 

Shortly after the incident at the restaurant Cecilia is arrested and Institutionalized for her sisters murder. It is now when she finds out Adrian was only pretending to be ignorant to the fact that Cecilia was taking birth control pills. In reality he knew the whole time and was switching them out and now Cecilia is told that she is pregnant and she knows the father is Adrian.

This is where Adrian’s brother steps in again to talk with Cecilia about her finances as her “lawyer” in reality he is just there to confirm the audience’s hunch that he was working with his big bro the whole time.

While in her room Cecilia comes up with this plan to pretend to kill herself so that she could confirm Adrian’s presence. Lo and behold as soon as she stabs her wrist the invisible man tries to forcibly stop her. Cecilia Manages to stab him a few times with the pen she stole from the bother making the suit malfunction revealing his presence. 

Now this next part is the one part I thought was super cool. Guards come rushing to all the commotion and to briefly see the malfunctioning suit and this short sequence of the invisible man taking out all these guards starts. The choreography for this part was pretty well done and the fights were dope. Just seeing the fear the officers face when his own firearm is turned on him, is great. 

The invisible man then escapes the facility with Cecilia following because he had threatened one of her friend’s children. Cecilia just barely makes it intime to stop him from completely killing the kid. She uses a fire extinguisher to mark him and then proceeds to put several bullets into him effectively killing him.

Now this is where it gets super Scooby-Doo. As she goes to take off the mask, guess who, it’s the little brother and not Adrian. 

Then to the public Adrian is found hidden behind a wall in the basement of his mansion. He claims his little brother was his abuser who manipulated him his whole life. 

Cecelia determined that this was all just set up and that Adrian was and is the invisible man who has been tormenting her these last weeks. She tries to share this with the officers and her friend who still doesn’t believe her.

Cecilia now sees that no one is going to help her so she needs to end it herself. She pretends to go back to Adrian for a dinner date when in reality all she is trying to do is get a confession from him. He knows she’s wired so he says the one thing that will confirm it for her but wont hold in court. With that Cecilia steps off to the restroom. 

Once Adrian begins to grow tiresome waiting for her his throat is slit. Cecilia had gone back to their mansion earlier on in the movie and discovered another suit and hid it in the house. So now she went and used the suit to kill adrian. 

The movie ends with Cecilia carrying the second suit in a bag that is not closed and her police officer friend noticing it but for whatever reason he lets her keep it and pretends he doesn’t know that she just killed Adrian.

Currently The Invisible man is available to rent on the iTunes store for 19.99, which is crazy when you see that The Way Back, another movie that came out around the same time, is available to buy for 19.99  In short this movie was fun to watch if you turn off your brain and go for the ride.

On Monday, March 30 the Chabot put out a statement saying that extraordinary withdrawal for classes would be going into effect.

They had stated that the withdrawal will be effective starting on March 16th, and if you dropped any classes prior to that date it won’t qualify.

There is no approval system so all you need to do is apply and you can access it from CLASS-Web.

“I’m happy that the school decided to give students the option of the extraordinary withdrawal,” says Maxine Anguiano. “I’ve seen many complaints from students that they decide not to do online classes for a reason.”

In the email It stated  “Students’ academic standing will not be affected.” Course repeatability will not be affected.

There is also the possibility for a refund on enrollment fees and nonresident fees, but not for fees such as the parking pass, student representation fees, student activity fees, and health fees.                                            

“I mean it’s great knowing that if they switch to online is too rough for my physics class I can leave basically whenever,” says Chabot student Gabe Peña. 

The last day to apply for extraordinary withdrawal will be the last day of instruction, which is the week before finals. 

With the massive success of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, the conversation of whether to watch in sub or in dub has risen again. 

For those who don’t know the terminology, “sub” means that you watch the movie in its original language and you would read the subtitles. On the other hand, “dub” means that the audio was re-recorded in your native language, whatever that may be.

There are tons of people who have not seen the movie due to it being in sub. Reasons vary from not wanting to “read a movie” or just simply not being able to understand the language. 

This conversation is commonly seen in anime with lots of arguments on both sides.

There is the argument that things are lost in translation such as jokes or phrases when it comes to remaking the show or movie in dub but the same thing could be said about the translation for the sub.

“When it comes to live-action, dubbing is the worst. You just can’t do a voice over in a different language than the one that it was originally shot in,” says Chabot student and avid Anime watcher, Danny Loredo. “It’s just way too corny and distracts you from the film.”

There is also the fact that whoever is “dubbing” or writing the subs for whatever you are watching or playing could be censoring. There have been cases that prove that some lines are intentionally changed to issue in a form of censoring because whoever is doing the sub or the dub doesn’t agree with or approve of whatever is being said.

“Dub is just cringe for live action, translations would often result with a line being changed completely from what was originally intended,” says Chabot student frequent Anime watcher, Jacob Jenkins. “Live action dubs are awful because of how difficult it is to actually dub each line word for word due to how your lips move when speaking.”

An example of this would be Bruce Lee’s films he made while in Hong Kong the action was great but watching the movie in dub people would complain how his lips don’t match up with the words.

Will you be watching Parasite anytime soon or will you simply pass?